Wigan 1-1 Chelsea: Can you honestly believe we drew this?

I simply cannot believe the fact that we have let two important points slip away for two reasons. First of all the calamitous error from Petr Cech to simply gift Wigan their equaliser and secondly the use of our substitutions during the game.

We came into this one on a high after three real important wins against Newcastle, Valencia and City and being honest should have really taken the game to Wigan and got this won early doors.

During the first half I "Tweeted" that the most exciting thing about the game was a woman sitting the crowd with a Turkey on her head. Chelsea's play was nowhere near the performances of the last three games.

It was obvious that Wigan were going to try and remain solid in defensive areas and get men behind the ball and that was pretty much what happened. Chelsea dominated possession but failed to make the goalkeeper work to earn his wages.

Chelsea's passing wasn't quick enough or decisive enough in the first half. How many times did we pick the ball up in midfield and look up for someone to make that run in behind and it didn't happen. Didier Drogba for me had one of his off days again. His performance was a shadow of what we had seen lately AGAIN.

So we went in at half time 0-0 and being honest I was looking for AVB to make changes with Tottenham in mind on Thursday. I was hoping Drogba would come off and Fernando Torres came on as this game was crying out for Torres to play on the shoulder of the last defender looking for that through ball we had been missing.

So we came out for the second half and Oriol Romeu was taken off with Salomon Kalou on. For me, I can see why he took him off (Spurs) but bearing in mind we would be chasing the win, surely it would have been better to keep him on as a base to win the ball and get our attacks going?

So Kalou came on and what looked like a 4-2-3-1 formation. Meireles and Lampard were to sit and allow Mata, Sturridge and Kalou to play in behind the disappointing Drogba who was still on the bloody pitch!!.

Wigan started better than they had done in the first half and were causing us some problems and this is because Romeu was missing. Meireles and Lampard aren't your holding midfielder that will win you the ball back like Romeu does and Chelsea spent more time in the second half without the ball.

Then a touch of magic and sheer class from Danny Sturridge gave us the lead we had been craving. Ashley Cole picking the ball up inside the Wigan half wide left, saw Sturridge make his run and picked out a fantastic pass over the top to Sturridge. Sturridge brought the ball down with his left foot with one touch and smacked the ball hard and low under the keeper with his second touch on his right foot and found the bottom corner of the net. 1-0 Chelsea.

So with this I am now like most of you thinking that Wigan would now have to come out and chase the game which should open up the spaces on the pitch and once again it's a perfect chance to bring on Torres as Drogba is still not doing it in this one up top.

However, for some reason AVB decided to protect our lead rather than take the game by the scruff of the neck and chase the second goal. Mikel then came on for Juan Mata which was ridiculous. I understand how you want to protect a lead, but (no disrespect) this was WIGAN who really were there for the taking!!. I couldn't believe it.

So back to the 4-3-3 formation and Wigan's five man midfield started to see alot of the ball. For me, there were far too many instances where Wigan got at us and caused us problems. Credit to them for doing so and their manager but this game should have been buried by then. I apologise to the Wigan fans and neutral supporters reading this as I know it maybe sounds arrogant but you have to understand with the way we have been playing, we should have had the game won by now.

Then another later change and it's Florent Malouda on for Danny Sturridge. Again Fernando Torres was ignored. It should have been Drogba for Torres and not Sturridge off!.

Then we pay the price as Wigan push forward time and time again. A shot came into the box with loads of bodies in and around Petr Cech and for the reason only he knows, he palms the ball to his left hand side straight into the path of Jordi Gomez who slots the ball into the empty net as Chelsea's defenders through themselves at the ball. It was a sucker punch and a disaster for me. It finished 1-1.

No matter what anyone says, this was three points in the bag for me based on the way we had been playing. The error from Cech is something you just don't expect someone of his class to be making and the substitutions were confusing. How many more times will Fernando Torres be ignored!

We only have ourselves to blame for two points dropped. There is no messing about or trying to paint a better picture of the result by saying we still took a point from the game. To me it feels like we lost this one.

I said it was important that we treated this game with the same attitude as the other three and we didn't. Our passing wasn't quick and decisive enough, players had off days and should have been hauled off and it never happened and we now have to face Spurs on Thursday with a blow to our confidence when we should turn up there with our winning run intact.

I cannot believe we drew this one!

KTBFFH

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